The Lady of Soil Patron

#RPGaDay prompt for Day 1 is Patron. I immediately thought of the only time I played a warlock in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign and my beloved patron, the Lady of Soil. I was lucky that my DM allowed me to use a 3rd party homebrew for his Curse of Strahd campaign.

The Lady of Soil

The Lady of Soil was created by The Institute in collaboration with Ginny Di as a warlock patron alternative. She is neither a god nor does she pretend or try to be divine. Her origins have been lost to time. She is best understood as the archetype of the cycle of life in the natural world.

Juniper and the Lady

I utilized the Lady of Soil as the patron for my warlock, Juniper, who was inspired by the Brother’s Grimm tale – The Juniper Tree. She was my angsty girl who’s mother was a cannibalistic witch.
In Curse of Strahd, Juniper’s dark backstory matched the setting closer than I predicted (hello hags who eat children and sell their meat in addictive pies). I had a lot of fun with her having quiet mental breakdowns and I think my DM had too much fun toying with my young witchling.
DM and I even added a few twists in how Juniper’s warlock powers looked and acted – for example, the whole thorny vines coming out of her when she’s attacked also dealt damage to her and her allies because we lived for the angst and it represented Juniper’s own self harm and isolation issues.

I never did get to see Juniper to the end of the campaign and I’d love to play her again some day. In the mean time, I’m just inspired by this folkhorror patron and how she makes me consider the cycle of life and death and what might be protecting that cycle at all costs…